Till not too long ago, the only way to lay one's hands on a bottle of imported grog was by making that not-too-discreet trip to your not-so-friendly neighbourhood bootlegger. Today, the well-heeled Indian has few such problems — fine wines, exotic liqueurs and hand-crafted single malts are available off-the-shelf of your favourite retailer thanks to the emergence of specialized importers.

Imports of alco-beverages in India are highly regulated and subject to a high and complex tax structure. Further, stringent import regulations and strict labelling and packaging norms, enforced by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, are serious challenges.

One way to hedge such risks is to look beyond just importing, and indeed many of these companies are doing just that by getting into niche retailing ventures themselves. Consider:

Keshav Prakash, who comes from a family that's been in the wines and spirits business, has started The Vault, a one-stop portal that provides concierge service for global boutique spirits. Many of the importers are seeing an interest among angel investors and venture capital funds. Ankur Jain, after deciding to focus on importing premium craft beers, has now launched Craft Beer Hive, a branded draught beer dispensing network. His company Cerana recently closed two rounds of angel investments from a group of Indian and overseas investors. Meanwhile, the appropriately named FineWinesnMore has flagged off a wine-tasting room and a retail boutique. Read more about the men and women and their alco-bev ventures in the profiles on these pages.

Spirited Duo

Arun Kumar gave up his job as head of travel retail South Asia for Guinness UDV (now Diageo) a decade ago to set up Aspri Spirits with Jackie Matai, a financial veteran of sorts. At that time, many of his colleagues thought he was a bit crazy to walk out of a well-paying job. Today, though, Kumar has no regrets what with Aspri emerging as a leading distributor of some 300 prominent international brands of wines and spirits. "We saw the opportunity when the Indian consumer started becoming more discerning. Indians were travelling more and getting exposure to international trends. Some of the large alco-beverages majors were here but many globally iconic brands in various segments were not available," says Kumar.

High import tariffs on alcoholic beverages is one of the biggest challenges for the business. But what keeps Aspri upbeat is the growth in consumption of high-end premium alcoholic beverages. "A walk through liquor stores across the country shows that they no longer cater to mid-level brands but one sees a good collection of premium brands. Super-premium brands too are available at select stores," adds Kumar.

Aspri, which now has a pan-Indian network, works with the brands it imports to bring in global brand ambassadors with programmes targeted at food and beverage professionals and also end-consumers.

"We also try to bring an Indian perspective especially in cocktails wherein we try to adapt local likes and preferences," Kumar says. While Aspri has many premium whiskies, including Highland Park single malts and The Famous Grouse blended Scotch, in its portfolio, Kumar and Matai also see a growth trend in the consumption of wine, vodka, tequila and other cocktail liqueurs in India.

Beyond Lager

A computer engineer from Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, Ankur Jain didn't start as an insider in the spirits business. "I was, of course, an avid consumer of beer and; living and working in Manhattan after college, I was spoilt for choice with the best premium beers from all over the world," says Jain.

After ReliantMD, a healthcare venture that he had co-founded in the US, was acquired by a healthcare provider network in 2006, Jain moved back to Delhi and soon realized that there were no beers worth drinking in India except lagers. That was the cue for his next entrepreneurial foray, Cerana Imports, which brings into the country a portfolio of premium craft beers. Today Cerana imports and distributes over 20 global brands, including Belgian Blonde Ale of Duvel, Fruit Beers of Liefmans, Trappist Beers of Chimay and one of the largest Spanish beer brands of Estrella Damm.

Premium craft beers account for roughly 5% of the imported beer segment in India but that doesn't faze Jain who is positioning Cerana as India's leading craft beer company. His passion stems from the fact that speciality and premium beer consumption in India is growing at 30% annually. "Recently, Cerena forayed into the draught beer segment," says Jain, by "creating India's first brand of independent draught beer network, with vending machines in restaurants and hotels starting with Delhi and Mumbai." The draught beer platform has been branded Craft Beer Hive. Cerana has also launched its own packaged craft beer Biru.